About 70% of that money is reportedly going towards further expansion of DRAM production, rather than pricier, more complicated HBM. However, the firm has supplied HBM3E samples to Alibaba's T-Head and Cambricon, even as Samsung and SK hynix enter HBM4 production.
As of the South Korean prosecution's last tally in December 2025, Samsung's damages due to CXMT's alleged machinations ascended to "at least tens of trillions of won." A back-of-the-envelope extrapolation, considering quite a while has passed, might suggest a figure in the range of ₩40 trillion, or $29.5 billion, and rising exponentially.
The lasting impact on the memory market and technology in general is going well beyond plain number descriptors, though. All things considered, if the allegations are true, then CXMT's machinations resulted in a geopolitical-scale economic event. Dr. Evil would be proud.
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Bruno Ferreira Social Links Navigation Contributor Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals.
magbarn I’ll buy CXMT memory as soon as it’s just as good, readily available and cheaper than the triopoly of sk Hynix, Samsung, and micron. The more the Chinese steal from them the better. Reply
PEnns Hmmmm, somebody stole from someone who is currently fleecing the whole planet…..what to do now…..buy from the fleecer at exorbitant prices or at lower prices from the thief?? What a dilemma. Reply
Kicapan07 South Korean court says South Korean company was fleeced by non South Korean company! Reply
S58_is_the_goat Tanakoi said: I'll buy CXMT ram a month after hell freezes over. Chinese firms like this have stolen trillions of dollars of IP from abroad, with the full and complicit assistance of the CCP government: a brutal authoritarian regime that keeps three million of its own citizens in slave-labor genocide camps, and employs an army of two million state agents to censor what the rest of its citizens can read and post to the Internet. Tim Apple: yes but… we still need their memory for our phones. Reply
palladin9479 Stay on topic, which has nothing to do with geopolitics. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/chinas-cmxt-had-an-actual-roadmap-for-its-alleged-industrial-espionage-from-samsung-south-korean-court-says-project-hefei-was-responsible-for-cxmts-current-position-as-major-dram-maker#main
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